Total Pageviews

Monday, July 20, 2015

Pepto Bismol Feast of St. Margaret of Antioch, July 20

Also known as Marina, she was converted to Christianity, whereupon she
was driven from home by her father. She became a shepherdess and when
she spurned the advances of Olybrius, the prefect, who was infatuated
with her beauty, he charged her with being a Christian. He had her
tortured and then imprisoned, and while she was in prison she had an
encounter with the devil in the form of a dragon. According to the legend, he swallowed her, but the cross
she carried in her hand so irritated his throat that he was forced to
disgorge her (she is patroness of childbirth).

The next day, attempts
were made to execute her by fire and then by drowning, but she was
miraculously saved and converted thousands of spectators witnessing her
ordeal-all of whom were promptly executed. Finally, she was beheaded.
That she existed and was martyred are probably true; all else is
probably fictitious embroidery
and added to her story, which was immensely popular in the Middle Ages,
spreading from the East all over Western Europe. She is one of the
Fourteen Holy Helpers, and hers was one of the voices heard by Joan of
Arc.